These advances included detailed anatomical descriptions of teeth and related structures, as well as van Leeuwenhoek's identification of microscopic organisms in tooth scrapings. Such dispatch presumably would have encouraged people with this common problem to seek attention from nonphysicians and would, thus, have contributed to the separation of dental from medical care.ĭuring the 1500s, advances in anatomy, microbiology, and other areas laid the foundations for specialized treatises on dentistry and for a theoretical-not just mechanical and empirical-approach to oral health. In contrast, 'lay' practitioners such as barbers got the job done quickly. One early twentieth century history of dentistry suggests that from Hippocrates onward, physicians tended to favor a very slow-and painful-process of tooth extraction (Guerini, 1909). Other factors may also have contributed to occupational segregation. Elite physicians and surgeons might minister to the teeth of princes and bishops, but dental services in Europe became largely the preserve of barber-surgeons and other nonphysicians. Many kinds of surgery were likewise viewed as uninteresting and mechanical, but dental problems and services became, in particular, more isolated from medicine. Once medical science begin to revive in the West during the Renaissance, few medical experts considered oral health interesting or challenging.

In the Arabic-Persian world, however, advances continued despite religious limits on anatomical research and surgery. D., medical and scientific progress suffered throughout Western Europe for a millennium. 129-201) routinely discussed oral health problems and advised pharmacological and mechanical strategies for managing and sometimes preventing pain, tooth decay, tooth loosening, bad breath, gum swelling, and abscesses.Īfter the fall of Rome in the fifth century A.

Later Greek and Roman medical texts by authorities such as Hippocrates (ca. It prescribes several herbal and other compounds to treat pain and swelling but makes no reference to dental restorations, extractions, or appliances. and may include segments from much older sources. The most famous early discussion of dental problems is found in the Ebers papyrus, which has been dated to 1550 B. (The attribution of tooth decay to worms was not put finally to rest until the eighteenth century.) The tablet recommends treatment with pulverized henbane, gum mastic, and a thrice-repeated incantation. A 5,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, for example, refers to the legend of the ''tooth worm'' as the source of tooth decay ('let me drink among the teeth, and set me on the gums') (Prinz, 1945, p. 1 These writers often mixed myths with potentially helpful prescriptions for herbal and other compounds to treat pain, clean teeth, and combat foul breath. In a very broad sense, the origins of dental education lie in the works of the ancient Middle Eastern and Asian writers who recorded explanations, descriptions, and advice-that is, instruction- about an array of health problems including oral health problems. Additional historical information is also found in later chapters of this report and in the background papers. Table 2.1 summarizes key dates in dentistry and dental education with an emphasis on developments before 1970. The following brief account of the evolution of dental education provides context for the rest of this report. The question of who should assess dental practice and education-and in what fashion-has provoked controversy for more than a century. Another involves the relative importance of instruction in technique versus education in scientific and critical thinking. One fundamental disagreement involves the relationship between medicine and dentistry. Free-standing, profit-making schools have given way to university-based schools of dentistry, and postgraduate education in general and specialized fields of practice has become widespread.ĭespite convergence in many areas, differences in opinion about dental practice and education persist. During the last century and a half, training through apprenticeship-and purely self-taught and self-proclaimed competency-have been replaced by a lengthy period of formal instruction. As dental science and technology have advanced, instruction in dental practice has become more sophisticated both in substance and in method. The history of dental education is marked by both change and continuity.

Renaissance dental office toolkit